ATI drivers won't install/blue screens during gaming

[fantastic117]

Hello, recently, when playing any games within about 5-10min the game would hang, with shredded graphics and lines everywhere, would go to an unreadable bluescreen and then restart. I would get a "Blue Screen" error or a "LiveKernelEvent". Also there was a BC COde 116 mentioned, in the small dialogue box that would appear after every crash (can't remember where to look up the little screen at the moment sorry). I updated bios, and driver, reinstalled vista, bought different RAM but nothing has helped. It was only today, that I realised the graphics driver's don't seem to have updated. I uninstalled them, used driver sweeper, and the installed the new ones downloaded from ati's website, but it still shows up as the old version afterwards. So my questions are, how do I install the new driver? And is this the solution for my bluescreening during gaming? What could be the other possible causes? Thanks very much in advance.

Specs:
phenom2 x3 720 2.8ghz
4gb ddr3 133mhz crucial ram
M4A78T-E mobo (790gx chipset)
HD 3300 gpu intergrated (waiting on the 5000)
vista business x64 sp2

 

[aford10]

Try using driver cleaner to remove the old drivers.
www.drivercleaner.net/

Once that is done, check to make sure the old drivers are gone.

Then go to the website and download the new drivers.

 

[fantastic117]

Try using driver cleaner to remove the old drivers.
www.drivercleaner.net/

Once that is done, check to make sure the old drivers are gone.

Then go to the website and download the new drivers.

Thanks for the reply. I already did that, use drivercleaner I mean. Where can I check to make sure they are absolutly gone? I check the device manager and it doesn't show up there, but, when I reboot (after having uninstalled them) I do not get a "new hardware detected" message, which makes me think something is still there, even after using drivercleaner?

 

[aford10]

device manager-->display adapters-->you'll be able to see if your card shows up and the driver version.

Also, if the old drivers are gone, your monitor should go back to windows default resolution.

 

[fantastic117]

Well I checked in display adapters, and all it had there was the defaut windows one. And yes, my moniter went back to the default res. However, I still can only install the 8.650 driver, not the 9.9 I downloaded, and I don't even know if this will fix the root problem, namely, windows crashing while gaming and giving me a BC Code 116 + LiveKernelEvent/BlueScreen error.

 

[aford10]

I looked up that code number, and it seems that it's related to your display drivers. So this should take care of the root problem.

After you uninstalled the drivers, only the default drivers showed up. Now, when you install the new drivers (downloaded as v9.9), they show up in the device manager as v8.650?

 

[fantastic117]

After you uninstalled the drivers, only the default drivers showed up. Now, when you install the new drivers (downloaded as v9.9), they show up in the device manager as v8.650?

Exactly, and I assume that my bsod's are as a result of that somehow. I've also been considering, maybe the there's a fault with the actual hardware of the hd3300 somehow? I have two days still to rma it. Thanks for your time helping me here, by the way, it's much appreciated .

 

[aford10]

That almost sounds like a bad download. Is there a forum on the download site to see if others have the same issue?

Happy to help...that's what this site is all about.

 

[fantastic117]

I couldn't find anything specific, though a mod did post something about the X86 and or X64 versions of the C++ 2005 redistributable, and to update them to fix some problems with the vista drivers [http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=107672&enterthread=y]. Should I go ahead and try this?

 

[fantastic117]

Here's some food for thought. I have an analysis of one of my crash dumps.

On Tue 15/09/2009 12:29:22 your computer crashed
This was likely caused by the following module: atikmdag.sys
Bugcheck code: 0x116 (0xFFFFFA8003CCC4E0, 0xFFFFFA6005C20E5C, 0x0, 0x2)
Error: VIDEO_TDR_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
product: ATI Radeon Family
company: ATI Technologies Inc.
description: ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver

I have 6 in total 4 being pretty much identical to this, apart from the date/time, one with an unknown module but same error and bugcheck code and one claiming to be the result of another malfunction.

 

[aford10]

It sounds like many are having that same problem and are waiting for a solution from ATI.
http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardware-devices/3707-atikmdag-sys.html

It may be time to get ahold of ATIs support line to see if they've come up with a fix yet.

 

[fantastic117]

Yeah looks that way, though rom what I've read now it seems ATI have known about this for some time now, and have done nothing to fix it, preferring instead to push out tweaks for the very newest and most expensive GPU setups out there instead, a shame really. Another thing thats a shame is this advertnext to here telling me to download "new ati vista drivers"... "garunteed to work". I think it's mocking me .